A leaked document from
Imperial Tobacco shows how the Canadian Convenience
Stores Association and its affiliate were used as front
groups to block health regulations and tobacco taxes.

A confidential
presentation by Imperial Tobacco Canada to its
multinational parent company, British American Tobacco,
reveals both the objectives and tactics behind the
company’s decade-long campaign to “keep the contraband
issue alive”, despite the fact that
contraband decreased substantially in the country
during this period.

The document, provided by an anonymous whistleblower,
shows how Imperial Tobacco used retailer and other
business associations as front groups for their lobbying
efforts aimed at preventing effective regulations and
tax increases.
The Imperial Tobacco presentation describes the public
relations and lobbying activities of two seemingly
independent groups — the Canadian Convenience Stores
Association (CCSA) and the National Coalition Against
Contraband Tobacco (NCACT) as “Our Campaigns”.

The document explains how these groups succeeded in
providing a “credible voice for contraband tobacco”, a
key strategic goal for the industry given its own lack
of credibility. For example, the NCACT, which was set up
by the CCSA and is managed by the lobbying firm Impact
Public Affairs, is seen playing a key role in distancing
Imperial Tobacco even further from its anti-regulation
and anti-tax public relations campaigns (“Not just ‘Big
Tobacco’!”). The document also shows how the industry
was able to recruit credible third parties (like
municipalities), purportedly to combat contraband, in
order to use as political leverage to influence
government policies and prevent the implementation of
effective tobacco control measures.

“The use of front groups by the tobacco industry
is not new,” says Cynthia Callard, Executive
Director of Physicians for a Smoke-free Canada, “but
front groups are usually difficult to expose at the
moment that they are the most effective. These
revelations are particularly relevant today as these
groups are currently involved in a campaign to undermine
plain and standardized packaging reforms.”

“The presentation highlights not only the extent to
which the industry controls both the agenda and the
messaging of pro-tobacco front groups, but also the
tobacco industry’s ability to manipulate credible third
parties who have no vested interests in the tobacco
business, such as municipalities and the media, into
helping them create a public and political narrative
tailored to protect its interests.”

“It is perfectly acceptable for retailers and other
groups to express their views about government health
initiatives,” adds Flory Doucas, spokesperson for the
Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. “What is not
acceptable is when the tobacco industry is allowed to
hide behind front groups without disclosing their
financial relationships with them.” Ms. Doucas noted
that representatives from both groups
repeatedly refused to answer questions about their
financing during provincial and federal legislative
hearings.

“What is now clear is how easy it is for the industry
to hide their involvement in a succession of campaigns
aimed at subverting science-based public health measures
that have broad public support. Front groups are a
violation of one of the most basic principles of a
functioning democracy: transparency. Governments have a
duty not only to promote transparency but to ensure
transparency in policy-making. Similarly, the media must
be much more vigilant in exposing the true nature and
purpose of groups that attempt to prevent governments
from enacting public health measures, otherwise they too
end up playing into the tobacco industry’s playbook,”
concludes Ms. Doucas.

Melodie Tilson, Policy Director with the Non-Smokers’
Rights Association, agrees: “Governments have a
responsibility to protect public health from tobacco
industry interference. This is not only a moral
responsibility, but one required under international
law”. Indeed, the global health treaty on tobacco (the
WHO’s Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control, ratified by Canada)
puts the full onus on governments to monitor tobacco
industry attempts to subvert tobacco control
initiatives, to inform the public of these attempts and
to adopt measures to prevent industry interference.

“Imperial Tobacco’s presentation, together with the
industry’s current attempts to prevent the
implementation of federal regulations on plain
packaging, clearly illustrate the vulnerability of the
public interest to the industry’s deceptive practices
and underscore the urgent need for measures aimed at
making tobacco industry lobbying more transparent. After
a decade of inaction, the federal government recently
announced that it would be reviewing ways to strengthen
implementation of this aspect of the treaty[1].
The question is: how long do we have to wait before the
government puts a stop to these practices?” declared Ms.
Tilson.

The groups are asking:

that all policymakers and the media treat
organisations that oppose tobacco policies with
renewed scepticism and require timely declarations
of financial and other relationships with tobacco
interests in all interactions with them;

that measures be put in place requiring
regular reports from tobacco companies regarding
their affiliations, political activities and
associated expenditures;

that a transparent system of disclosure be
established through which all non-tobacco industry
organisations lobbying any part of government on a
tobacco-related issue must disclose any
consideration from tobacco companies, financial or
other;

that health officials raise awareness and
share information with other government departments
as well as levels of government regarding industry
interference in public policy development.